To Boldly Go Where Few Have Tread

This is the "Godfather" of bad movies. Or we've all been told.

Let's set the scene: it's 2002. Eddie Murphy is riding a giant wave of notoriety that he found in the late 80's. A man who gained fame for being subversive, intelligent and often downright batshit, is now a household name. He just voiced a talking donkey in Shrek, and my God, he's proven that talented actors can still make money and make relevant movies with great performances. He worried us a little bit with some of his choices; "The Nutty Professor" and "Doctor Doolittle" aren't exactly high art. But those are just kids' movies, right? You can't expect Eddie Murphy to go all "Raw" in a children's movie. If you do, you're disgusting.

Enter Pluto Nash.

Pluto Nash is not a children's movie. Children's movies, often, are fun. Pluto Nash is a carefully crafted, billion dollar flop that was designed to hit all the right buttons. It followed the film formula to a "t", it got some of the biggest names in Hollywood, it spared no expense with special effects (and for 2002, this movie at least LOOKS fairly decent). But it wasn't good. It was never going to BE good. All Murphy's involvement did was bring its badness to the public eye. Without him, it would have been an easily forgettable B-movie with some "Hey!"-worthy celebrity sightings.

Pluto Nash is the movie Murphy should never have made. But as we sat down to actually watch it, we wondered: is this really the worst flop of all time? Or do we just believe that because it's what we've been told? Does the movie actually SUCK as hard as they say? Could it have been saved? Can things possibly have been any worse?

Yes. This is the Good One.

This movie was made in 1971.

I know, right? We could barely believe it ourselves. It doesn't feel like a 70's movie. I'm sure if you sat down and analyzed it stylistically, you could tie it into the 70's very nicely. The psychadelic style, the pacing, the portrayal of children and family. I believe it. But something about this movie makes it feel much...

The argument continued for a minute or so, when it dawned on me exactly what was happening.

"Guys," I said. "We're watching a timeless movie."

Willy Wonka has survived its era, and continues to be present in young people's minds as a movie worth watching. But what exactly elevates the film from quirky kids movie to family classic? We investigated the movie with plenty of booze in tow, because as Mr. Wonka is quick to remind us, "candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker."

One Small Step for Drinking Games...

Most of you have a fully formed opinion about reality television. Heavily scripted, manipulative shlock that appeals to the lowest common denominator, right? Well, I'm willing to bet you've never seen an episode of most reality competition shows, so shut your mouth. I'm here to tell you that The Amazing Race ROCKS. HARDCORE.

Honestly, you can't get better drinking game fodder than reality television. The same things happen in each episode. The pacing is off-the-charts fast, the characters border on cartoonish levels of excitement, and generally the shows get insanely complicated and filled with rules. The Amazing Race is no exception, but even someone with THE lowest opinion of reality TV can appreciate the show for its adventurous bent and exotic locales. It brings out the wayward traveller in all of us.

The show's been running for over ten years, so you've got a lot of catching up to do. Drink hearty, friends, we're going overseas.

Nothing Brings a Family Together like Daddy Issues

Creating these games can be harder than one might realize.

I've been experimenting with the structure of these games over the past few weeks, with middling results on average. In getting more creative with how the games are set up, it might make for a more interesting night in certain circumstances, but it doesn't necessarily fulfill the requirements for a good drinking game. A good drinking game should get you drunk. That's really the only criteria.

With the Little Miss Sunshine game, I went back to basics in a sense. I looked at this perfectly constructed movie, at what made it great, and at what defined it as a piece of film. The resulting game is proof that, when it comes to creating drinking games, it's best to follow one rule: keep it simple, stupid.

"This is the Sweetest Movie about Suicide Ever"

I thought this was the first indie movie we were making a game for at For Your Inebriation, until the Disco Sheriff pointed out to me that The Passion of the Christ was independently produced. However, in that case, nobody besides Gibson wanted to touch it with a ten-foot pole. This is a little different.

When we think of indie movies now, we don't just think of movies that are independently produced. We think of a style of filmmaking: lower budget, stranger situations, off-beat humor, alternative or punk music playing in the background. The word "Indie" has been reappropriated, and whether that's right or wrong, it's spawned a lot of big-budget imitators who are looking to cash in on trends.

This movie isn't one of those. But it has a distinctive, off-beat flavor to it that makes it both very interesting as a piece of film and very difficult to make a game for. Not to mention it's not even two hours long.

Happy Summer!

Those of you who were paying attention at the end of the last review might recall that I was going to make a drinking game for "Memento" next.

Turns out that after the soul-crushing horror that was "Passion of the Christ," not too many people were into that particular idea. And I realize that today is the first day of summer. So for the next four weeks, to celebrate the new season, we'll be taking a look at some of our favorite movies and television shows that have to do with travel and adventure! Because there's no better way to celebrate summer than packing into a car and going wherever the road takes you, whether you're setting out on a quest or just rolling around.

Memento's day will come. And that day will be sweet. But will it be as sweet as a delicious burger from White Castle?

Gets Better Every Time

I don't have to explain this movie to you guys, right? You all know it? Presumably you like it? Good.

For the 1% of the population that has never seen this movie, you're missing out on a great time. I'm convinced my parents were sitting on this one for years until they thought I could appreciate it, because they were THAT excited when I watched it with them for the first time. Most of us had seen the movie on television somewhere, or at a friend's house, or with family.

Weirdly enough, most of us had never seen the movie all the way through. "You forget the whole first half hour of this movie, because you never see the first half hour of this movie," claimed Flux. Meanwhile, Paul had never seen the iconic final scene that's been parodied in media ever since it first hit theaters. So I encourage you all to watch "Ferris Bueller" all the way through.

And while you're at it, play this stellar drinking game. Just make sure you give yourself a day off afterward.

Warning: DEFINITELY NSFW

We here at For Your Inebriation are a bunch of dirty birds, especially when we're living life on the tipsy side. A bunch of the stuff we say while playing through these games is unpublishable. I'd rather take a look at these games with a critical eye than go straight for the sex jokes.

That's all going out the window with this game. This show is famous for its scantily clad women, its power-hungry men, and levels of gore beyond reproach. Some have called it gratuitous. But the show still has garnered high levels of critical acclaim, it is changing the way television is being produced even though it is still in its early stages, AND it has earned the title of the most widely pirated show on television.

Can a show be considered high art and low art at the same time? In any case, Game of Thrones is going strong at season three, and we'll be playing this drinking game for a long, long, LONG time to come.

Hogwarts Hijinks!

When I choose which movie or show to make a game out of for any given week, it's done using a random number generator and a giant master list of media. I was not expecting to get a Harry Potter movie for a long, long time. But hey, I love Harry Potter as much as the next twenty-something, so any excuse to watch the movies is okay by me.

The sixth movie in this landmark series is where the filmmakers finally realized how to do a faithful adaptation of the beloved childrens' books by J.K. Rowling. Before now, they were just flailing. So does alcohol make the viewing experience better or worse? You know we were excited to find out.

"Do You Know the Way to the Great Valley?"

There's one scene that all of you remember from this movie: Littlefoot's mother dies after fending off a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex during an earthquake. It's one of the saddest animated movie deaths of all time, and it's not even Disney produced.

Did you know there's a PLOT? And really cool characters? And deep spiritual undertones?

I remembered the first fifteen minutes of this movie, the ending, and not much else. What gives? Speaking for our merry band, it's not that we forgot the details of this movie. We repressed them.